I love Decembers & here are a few delights the month brought:

Bread Maker

Anne Perry novels 

Colonial Williamsburg candle 

Devotional 

Corduroy tote 

Wish I could list all the priceless things that can’t be bought as I’m far more grateful for those!

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I’ve been inspired to share & count my joys by author friend, Stacey Thacker. If you’ve not met Stacey, please visit her website & sign up for her newsletter. You don’t want to miss her insightful spiritual posts, the list of things she’s loving month by month, her edifying books, & so much more! She’s an inspiration to many, me included. Hence, this post. If you’re Christmas shopping, hope this gives you fresh ideas…

OCTOBER JOYS!

Distilled Genius – A Collection of Life-Changing Quotations

Barefoot Dreams Socks

Candlelighter

Everyday Prayers for Christmas

Yardley Royal Red Roses Powder

Kindle case

Christmas for the Heart

See you in November!

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Time is truly flying & somehow writing happens in the midst of it all. I wish I could slow time down & am often glad eternity has no clock. I can’t imagine it but I think it will mean we enjoy these fleeting joys forever! Every summer does have its own story & the blessings are many. American flags. Fresh strawberries. Book stuff. Sunshine. Long walks. Lake days. Good meals. The pool. Our garden. Trips to our unfinished little house down south near our boys. I could write a book about the blessings. There’s always a down side but it’s better not to dwell on it as Philippians 4:8 says.  And then there’s Paul’s words in James … Count it all JOY! And so I am. Hope you are, too.

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England in June is especially beautiful! More on social media if you follow me there!

Tea at Chatsworth was elegance personified. Opulent surroundings is an understatement!

My favorite site is the Oxford Botanical Gardens, circa 1621!

Bath was charming, clean, & so historic! My honeymooning hero & heroine go to Bath in The Indigo Heiress releasing next January. Cover reveals coming soon!

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So, I’m in a place I’ve always longed to see & now that I’m here I can’t help but think of A Heart Adrift! All this sea & sun & sand remind me of Captain Lennox aboard ship & then Esmée waiting for him in her chocolate shop along the waterfront. I’m here with my aunts {& cousins} who’ve been coming to Hilton Head for 40 years!

This island is truly a wondrous place & I’m soaking in the beauty of the beach while on alligator watch near the lagoons. It’s a very different world here than the PNW or even Kentucky. We’re staying in Sea Pines plantation at a ‘villa’ as the locals call it so the private beach is not too crowded. First impressions are many, including that it’s a very clean beach with few shells so imagine my delight at finding these tiny ones! Truly a paradise in a very real sense, even when cloudy like today.

Being a foodie, Hilton Head is a gastronomic wonder! Shrimp & whitefish are faves & abundant here. And then there’s dessert… We began our vacation by jokingly doing a “Key Lime Crawl” across the island but stopped after a slice on 3 successive nights, agreeing that every pie stop is different & delicious! It will be a wrench to leave but we’re already making plans to return next year, hopefully.

Thank you, Hilton Head. You’re epic & inspiring!

*Book photo Credit: Life&Lit

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Soon I’ll be traveling to France, my first trip there. Amazingly enough, I’ll be taking a nonstop flight from Seattle to Paris. That’s a long time in the air so hope to write & read to my heart’s content. This is my very first trip to France & the castle where my upcoming Scottish novel opens. I’d planned to visit pre-pandemic before beginning the novel but … nay! Guess I’ll see how my research lines up with reality. Plus, while there, I’ll be a part of the Lucy Worsley tour, one of my favorite UK historians & maybe yours, too. She brings history to life in such unique ways. Here’s her fun, informative website & also Author Fan Travel for the inspiring itinerary:

Author Fan Travel

Lucy Worsley 

In May I’m off to Scotland with reading friends & author Pepper Basham, another lass with Scottish roots. We’re both at work on novels set there and will be visiting the places in our books as well as other historic sites. Scotland, more than any country I’ve visited, has my heart. Here’s a favorite photo from the Isle of Iona, said to be the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland in AD 563.

When last there I took way too many pictures of tea & confections, including the one below. Not a one of them was chocolate. Sorry, Esmée! Watch for more photos on social media & do a little armchair traveling with me, if you like. I especially love Instagram

I’ll give a writing update soon. Excited to share a new title & book cover, a new website, & other goodness…

Till next time, haste ye back!

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It’s always interesting to look back on the past year in pictures. A brief snapshot of your life in a few significant frames. These are my Top 9 photos from my Instagram account based on the number of likes. I hide likes for my posts as I’m not a numbers person so they mean little to me. I do have to pay attention to how many books are sold, however!

Looking at these Top 9 photos reminds me of what’s truly important. My ministry or calling is books but there are only 3 book-related photos. Most of them are of family & the central event of our year, Wyatt & Faith’s wedding on 4.3.21 There’s even a somewhat vintage photo of our own wedding almost 28 years ago. How times have changed even in picture quality! Our romance began before social media, texting, & all the rest. I’m so grateful yet at the same time I wish we had had the benefit of stellar photography & video to capture those shining moments. The only unrelated photo is from the show Miss Scarlet & the Duke on PBS. Season 2 is coming & I highly recommend it!

So, here’s to 2022. And I’ve decided this coming year I’m going to TAKE MY TIME. I have a hurry habit. I even walk fast. My firefighter son recently encouraged me to slow down. This was after a bad fall over a curb which I was rushing over & didn’t see. That injury reminded me that I’m no longer 20! The only thing I don’t rush is my writing/work. If you read my novels then you know I’m not in a hurry:)

 I’m hoping for a brighter, more Christ-centered 2022 for each of us. We’re not the same as we were in 2020 or 2021. Much has changed. But God is so good at silver-linings. And for those of us who truly know Him, we have a very happy ending💛

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 Today I woke up and my first thought was, “I don’t want to live in a world without Ginger.” I don’t usually post something like this in my journal here but amid a pandemic that has suddenly turned personal, I can’t help but write in the hope it might help someone else whose heart is broken.

Yesterday my dear friend – my sister of the heart, as we called ourselves – lost her life to Covid pneumonia. A Kentuckian like me, Ginger shared my love of the Lord & family & books & essential oils & Cracker Barrel. She even introduced me to fried cornbread on Cracker Barrel’s hidden menu:) She checked on the cabin when I was gone. She sent me laugh-out-loud memes at midnight her time which proved she was a lively night owl. When we got together we’d order BIG Sonic Coca-colas and drive around Appalachia talking & laughing & edifying. When I fell down the cabin steps to the concrete basement, she was the one who showed up after I said I was fine & took me to the hospital to be sure. I wasn’t fine and if not for Ginger, I would have been a whole lot worse.

I could always count on Ginger to pray and share any burden. She was getting ready to be married and had a beautiful, bright future before her in North Carolina where she’d recently moved. She was a redheaded whirlwind and I loved her so much. In short, she was my forever friend and my life suddenly feels dim without her. And I’m among her many friends & family who are saying the same.

Day before yesterday, I was reading my favorite devotional – New Morning Mercies – my heart heavy with the knowledge Ginger lay in ICU on a ventilator far away. Though this particular devotional book isn’t for writers, this was July 1’s reading:

“Every single day of your life was written into God’s book before you lived the very first of them. None of those days and none of the things that you have faced or will face in those days are a surprise to your Lord. He carefully authors the content of every one of those days with His own hands. He controlled every twist and turn of the plot that is your story. He introduced all the characters and determined all the locations. Nothing will happen to you that He has not written into His book. He has already determined how your story will end.”

In hindsight, though I didn’t know what July 2nd would bring, the Lord did. Ginger’s life story would end and her homegoing would begin. He also knew how my heart would break when our prayers for Ginger led to complete healing in heaven, not here. And He even arranged that day’s devotional to be written in the language of my writer’s heart when the other 364 devotional posts aren’t. That is how specific and tailormade God’s grace and comfort are.

If you’re grieving, I urge you to look at how God is uniquely comforting you in ways only known to Him and you. Grace only He can give. Not only that, we have the hope that this isn’t the end of the story. For Ginger it became a new, flawless beginning the moment she stepped into eternity. And though I miss her more than I can express, I hold close the priceless promise that I will see her again. Glory!

*New Morning Mercies, A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Trip

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My Kentucky kitchen

Simple White Bread

1 teaspoon sugar
1 package dry yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Dissolve sugar and yeast in ¼ cup warm water in large bowl; let stand 5 minutes.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with knife. Add 1 cup warm water, flour, and salt to yeast mixture; stir until soft dough forms. Turn out onto floured surface. Knead dough till smooth and elastic about 5 minutes.

Place dough in large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in warm place free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Gently press 2 fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.

Uncover dough, and punch dough down. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Roll into a 14×7-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Roll up tightly, starting with a short edge, pressing firmly to eliminate air pockets; pinch seam and ends to seal. Place roll, seam side down, in an 8×4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Uncover dough, gently brush with egg. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Reduce over temperature to 350 degrees (do not remove bread from oven). Bake an additional 15 minutes or until loaf sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.

ENJOY!

Yield: 12 servings/1 loaf

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My grandmother was a girl of eight when the Spanish flu struck in 1918-19. She was one of eight children born to a poor family in rural southwest Virginia. These old photos are from that time period, showing her on the left in a family portrait and then again a little older wearing a hat. Her dress looks clean if stiff, perhaps from hanging on the clothes line, and is stained.

How a poor family came to have their photograph taken is a story in itself and one I’ll never know. My grandmother passed away in 2007 at nearly one hundred years of age. I dedicated my debut novel The Frontiersman’s Daughter to her. How I wish I’d asked her more about that tragic time in which she lost three of her older siblings – Reggie, Gaye, and Stella, all in their teens. I recall Granny saying that only she and her father didn’t get the flu. I imagine they took care of all those who had it and watched them die. I can’t imagine the loss.

Not long after she went to work at the mayor’s fine home as a domestic servant and then a few years later someone arranged for her to go to Berea College in Kentucky, known for poor Appalachian youth. It seems a miracle she not only survived but made it to Kentucky through someone’s kindness and far-sightedness. I find a lot of hope in her story. She was an extraordinary woman who lived during an extraordinary time.

The poem below was written in 1869 by Kathleen O’Mara then reprinted during 1918-19 Pandemic.

And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.

Photo taken during Spanish Flu

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